Snowboarding has become increasingly popular in the last decade. The binding that holds the rider's feet onto the board plays an important role in ensuring safety, comfort and maneuverability.
The most popular conventional soft bindings for snowboarding use a two-strap system in which the boot of the rider is placed on a plate that is fastened to the snowboard, and held in place by a first strap that is fastened over the toes and a second strap that is fastened over the instep. This type of system suffers the drawback that the two straps must be manually fastened over the foot of the rider, requiring the rider to bend over, and often to remove hand wear, in order to close the binding. This conventional system uses a “ratchet and ladder” closure means that has no “memory” of the closure tension.
Attempts have been made to make snowboard bindings having “step-in” characteristics that are common in downhill ski bindings. For example, a common “step-in” system uses a base plate having a clipping mechanism, which can lock on a corresponding mechanism fixed on the sole of the boot. This type of “step-in” suffers the drawback that a particular binding can only be used with a corresponding boot since the mechanism on the binding must mate with the mechanism on the boot. In addition, because the attachment to the board is over a smaller area, and the outsole of the boot includes part of the coupling mechanism and no strap supports pass over the boot, the boot must be made rigid over some portions, to provide support to the foot and ankle. This renders the boot less comfortable. Rigid boots are also less popular because the snowboard piloting is less precise.
Another type of “step-in” system has been proposed, that attempts to combine the convenience of “step-in” systems with the control levels attainable with two-straps, called the “BACK-IN” system. An example is the Flow/K2 binding system that has similarities to a two-strap binding, except that the foot enters the binding through the back (which then clips into place) rather than the top. A single webbing that covers most of the foot and is held on by straps holds down the rider's boot. The BACK-IN binding suffers the drawback that the rigidity is increased because of the rigidity of the high back, and the overall feeling and pressure repartition over the boot is rougher compared to a conventional soft two-strap binding.
The following disclosures regarding other snowboard bindings systems have been proposed and may be briefly summarized as follows:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,190,311 discloses a snowboard binding system in which a binding for one boot is connected to a binding for another boot by cables via a tensioning means allowing both boots to be released in case of an abnormal load on one boot.
U.S. patent application No. 2004/0113392 discloses a snowboard binding having a support structure with a base plate and side plates that project from the base plate. Tension cables, which hold a single instep element, are attached to the side plates. The instep element extends from a toe region of the boot up to at least its instep region. A single tensioning device for the tension cables is independent of a pivoting position of a heel element.
EP 0 836 869-A2 discloses a snowboard binding in which a toe-strap and an instep strap are connected by cables to a lever located behind the heel, by which the tension on the toe- and instep straps can be controlled.
WO 97/31687 discloses a snowboard binding with a toe-strap assembly and an ankle-strap assembly connected by cables to a tensioning device which ends with a looped handle that the rider can pull to tighten both the toe strap assembly and ankle-strap assembly.
WO 2005/049156 discloses a snowboard binding in which a toe-strap and an ankle-strap are connected by a cable system, one of the straps having a ratchet-and-pawl type closure cooperating with a strap ladder to simultaneously tighten the toe and ankle straps. By actuating the closure more or less, the tension on the two straps is increased or decreased.
In the last three types of snowboard binding disclosed above, the toe and ankle straps are both held under tension by the cables. This is undesirable because of the poor distribution of holding forces and potentially dangerous because if a cable ruptured, the rider's boot could abruptly leave the snowboard in dangerous conditions.
It is desirable for a binding, adapted in particular for snowboarding, that offers the desired features of the best conventional two-strap systems, in particular the support and safety offered by the instep-strap and the excellent control offered by a well-adjusted toe-strap assembly, that is receptive to regular soft boots thus ensuring comfort and better control of the snowboard, that is convenient as regards placing a soft boot in the binding with a step-in function, and also convenient for securing the boot adequately and for releasing the boot.